I never saw that great woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, but I have read her eloquent and unanswerable arguments in behalf of the libert...y of womankind. I have met and known most of the progressive women who came after her--Lucretia Mott, the Grimke sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone--a long galaxy of great women.... Those older women have gone on, and most of those who worked with me in the early years have gone. I am here for a little time only and then my place will be filled as theirs was filled. The fight must not cease; you must see that it does not stop.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account... of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention! The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association hereby call their State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to 18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That privilege is ours.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Her mind is inferior to that of man, and we know that it requires the strongest of minds to become a good politician.... She has n...ot sufficient stability of character. She would always follow the opinions of her father, brother or husband ... and this might do more hurt than good.... There is no need of it. There are men enough who have nothing else to do who can transact all necessary business.... If permitted to study politics she would understand the art of governing and she might usurp the authority of men and it would be rather revolting to our feelings to see her holding it over the lords of creation.... She is too fastidious. This needs no comment.... If woman should have the control of affairs, we should soon see woman placed in every department of office in the country, thus throwing many of our most distinguished men out of office, and of course out of employment, or they would not do anything else to support themselves, and would soon become pests to security.... she would soon be able to converse intelligently on the subject of politics, and on this subject equal men.... If we should see ladies attending conventions, traveling about the country in great carts drawn by many yoke of oxen, waving their pocket handkerchiefs to assembled multitudes, it would greatly shock our sensibilities.... She was never designed for it. Her eyes were never made to be spoiled in plodding over political trash.... I presume it would be quite as easy to give 40 times 40 reasons why gentlemen should not engage in politics with such fiery zeal that they sometimes do, as it is to give 40 why ladies should not engage in them as well.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul--our Protestant idea, the ri...ght of individual conscience and judgment--our republican idea, individual citizenship. In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The flour merchant, the house-builder, and the postman charge us no less on account of our sex; but when we endeavor to earn money... to pay all these, then, indeed, we find the interest.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The last speaker alluded to this movement as being that of a few disappointed women. From the first years to which my memory stret...ches, I have been a disappointed woman.... I was disappointed when I came to seek a profession worthy an immortal being--every employment was closed to me, except those of the teacher, the seamstress, and the housekeeper. In education, in marriage, in religion, in everything, disappointment is the lot of woman. It shall be the business of my life to deepen this disappointment in every woman's heart until she bows down to it no longer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All over this land women have no political existence. Laws pass over our heads that we can not unmake. Our property is taken from ...us without our consent. The babes we bear in anguish and carry in our arms are not ours.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You may talk about Free Love, if you please, but we are to have the right to vote. To-day we are fined, imprisoned, and hanged, wi...thout a jury trial by our peers. You shall not cheat us by getting us off to talk about something else. When we get the suffrage, then you may taunt us with anything you please, and we will then talk about it as long as you please.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »